Ranji Trophy: Delhi, Baroda get a point each as Odisha gets first win in 4 years

Mithun Manhas came to Delhi’s rescue

New Delhi - Four centuries and 1066 runs scored in the match went waste as both Delhi and Baroda proved incapable of taking a first innings lead, let alone a win, in the Ranji Trophy Group B tie held at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Tuesday.

As a result both teams settled for a point each.

Delhi, who resumed the final day at 215/3 chasing a target of 561?plus set by Baroda, saved the Test by playing out the entire day, losing only three wickets and scoring 290 runs to end their innings at 505/6 declared.

Veterans Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia came to Delhi’s rescue again by scoring 106 and 133 not out, respectively.

In?form batsman Manhas, who had also scored a century in their last match against Odisha here at the Kotla, struck 15 boundaries to score his 22nd first class hundred while comeback man Bhatia proved his worth in the side by, first, taking three wickets and then scoring the unbeaten century. His innings included 13 splendid boundaries and one six.

The pair added 133 runs for the fourth wicket but more importantly played out 53.3 overs of the match to save Delhi the blushes.

After Manhas got out, the hosts lost another two wickets of wicketkeeper batsman Puneet Bisht (10) and Manan Sharma (17). At 398/6, with approximately 25 overs left to play, light permitting, Delhi looked in more than a spot of bother.

But all?rounder Sumit Narwal played another important innings of an unbeaten 65 runs as he partnered Bhatia to forge an unbeaten 107?run partnership for the seventh wicket in 24 overs which denied Baroda of bowling out the hosts and taking three points in stead of one.

Slow left?armer Bharghav Bhatt toiled hard to get three wickets in his 48 overs for the visitors.

At the end of the third round, Delhi tops Group B with eight points while Baroda are sixth with seven.

In the next round of matches beginning Nov 24, Delhi play Tamil Nadu here while Baroda visit Haryana at Lahli.

Meanwhile in Rohtak, Odisha got their first outright win in four years defeating Haryana on the final day of the third round of Ranji Trophy matches. Chasing 148 to win, Odisha were 60/3 overnight and lost Abhilash Mallick early on.

Wicketkeeper?batsman Halhadar Das followed soon after and at 81/5 it was anybody’s game. However, Govinda Podder and Deepak Behera put on 43 runs to take Odisha close to victory.

Podder got out after an important half?century but Behera and Lagnajit Samal made sure Odisha’s winless run didn’t extend any longer.

Tamil Nadu also earned their first outright win of the season in a dramatic victory over Maharashtra in Chennai. Needing only two more wickets to finish off the match, the hosts took only 8.5 overs to confirm six points.

Brief Scores:

Group A:

In Kolkata: Gujarat 260 all out and 272 for 8 decl. (Rujul Bhatt not out 103, Rakesh Dhurv 83) vs Bengal 526 for 7 decl.

In Hyderabad: Saurashtra 260 all out and 270 for 6 decl. vs Hyderabad 186 all out and 232/6 decl. (Ashish Reddy 56, Bavanaka Sandeep not out 50; Ravindra Jadeja 3/84).

In Bhubaneswar: Railways 205 all out and 353 for 5 decl. (Amit Paunikar 166,Sanjay Bangar not out 62) vs Punjab 314 all out and 59 for 2 decl.

In Jaipur: Madhya Pradesh 256 all out and 466 for 6 decl. (Naman Ojha 111, Jalaj Saxena 76 not out) vs Rajasthan 379 all out and 88 for 4 decl.

Group B:

In Delhi: Baroda 561 all out in 178 overs vs Delhi 505 for 6 decl. (Rajat Bhatia 133 not out, Mithun Manhas 106; Bharghav Bhatt 3/169).

In Rohtak: Haryana 66 all out and 300 all out vs Odisha 219 all out and 152 for 6 (Podder 51).

In Chennai: Tamil Nadu 276 all out and 149 all out vs Maharashtra 233 all out and 88 all out (Aushnik Srinivas 3/15, Malolan Rangarajan 3/34).

In Meerut: Uttar Pradesh 283 all out and 343 for 5 in 112 overs (Parvinder Singh 143, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 91) vs Karnataka 181 all out and 274 for 8 (Pandey 76, Satish 70; Bhuvneshwar 4?67).

Group C:

In Nadaun: Andhra 372 all out and 282 for 7 dec (Muzumdar 104, Sumanth 81; Dhawan 5/77) vs Himachal Pradesh 265 all out in 95.4 overs and 108 for 4.

In Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 360 all out vs Goa 208 all out and 292 for 8 (Bisla 90; Gupta 6?93).

In Malappuram: Kerala 264 all out and 294 for 5 (Abhishek Hegde 129, V.A. Jagadeesh 127) vs Assam 286 all out in 97.3 overs and 201 for 6 (Pallav Das 92 not out, Sreejith 5?75).

In Agartala: Services 563 for four decl and 7 for 0 vs Tripura 484 (Abbas Ali 121, Dey 107, Roy 64; Shahdab Nazar 6/108).